Music Box has announced two new upcoming CDs -- the first-ever release of the score to the Meryl Streep-Roseanne Barr comedy SHE-DEVIL, composed by Howard Shore (Remember when Shore used to score comedies? Big, Mrs. Doubtfire, Analyze This...); and a disc pairing two Pierre Jansen scores, L'ETAT SAUVAGE and LE GRAND FRERE.

Quartet has just announced their four latest releases. Along with their previously announced release of Georges Delerue's PARTNERS (with a wealth of score not featured in the final film), they will also release Gabriel Yared's score for TOM AT THE FARM, the new psychological thriller from critically acclaimed Canadian twink auteur Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways); an expanded version of Angelo Badalamenti's score for Paul Schrader's film of Ian McEwan's thriller THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS, starring Natasha Richardson, Rupert Everett, Helen Mirren and Christopher Walken; and Fernando Velazquez' score for the romantic comedy OCHO APELLIDOS VASCOS.

March 21 - Antony Hopkins born (1921)
March 21 - Mort Lindsey born (1923)
March 21 - Alfred Newman wins his seventh Oscar, his second for Score, for Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1956)
March 21 - Alex North begins recording his score for Spartacus (1960)
March 21 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score to The Green Berets (1968)
March 21 - John Williams wins his fifth Oscar, for his Schindler's List score (1994)
March 21 - Nicola Piovani wins his first Oscar, for Life is Beautiful; Stephen Warbeck wins the final Comedy or Musical Score Oscar for Shakespeare in Love (1999)
March 22 - Stephen Sondheim born (1930)
March 22 - Angelo Badalamenti born (1937)
March 22 - Andrew Lloyd Webber born (1948)
March 22 - Goran Bregovic born (1950)
March 22 - Wally Badarou born (1955)
March 22 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Time After Time (1979)
March 23 - Michael Nyman born (1944)
March 23 - David Grisman born (1945)
March 23 - Trevor Jones born (1949)
March 23 - Aaron Copland wins his only Oscar, for The Heiress score (1950)
March 23 - Philip Judd born (1953)
March 23 - Hal Mooney died (1995)
March 23 - Michael Linn died (1995)
March 23 - James Horner wins his first two Oscars, for Titanic's score and song; Anne Dudley wins the third Comedy or Musical Score Oscar, for The Full Monty (1998)
March 23 - Elliot Goldenthal wins his first Oscar, for the Fridascore (2003)
March 24 - Brian Easdale wins only Oscar, for The Red Shoes score (1949)
March 24 - Fred Steiner's score for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" is recorded (1967)
March 24 - John Barry begins recording his score for The Deep (1977)
March 24 - Arthur B. Rubinstein begins recording his score for WarGames (1983)
March 24 - Alex North wins an Honorary Oscar, "in recognition of his brilliant artistry in the creation of memorable music for a host of distinguished motion pictures; " John Barry wins his fourth Oscar, for the Out of Africa score (1986)
March 24 - Gabriel Yared wins Dramatic Score Oscar for The English Patient; Rachel Portman wins the second Comedy or Musical Score Oscar, for Emma (1997)
March 25 - Bronislau Kaper wins his only Oscar, for the Lili score (1954)
March 25 - Ken Thorne begins recording his score for Superman II (1980)
March 25 - Maurice Jarre wins his third Oscar, for the A Passage to India score (1985)
March 25 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Royale" (1989)
March 25 - John Barry wins his fifth and final Oscar, for the Dances With Wolves score; Stephen Sondheim wins first Oscar, for the song "Sooner or Later" from Dick Tracy (1991)
March 25 - Luis Bacalov wins his first Oscar, for Il Postino; James Horner, nominated for both Apollo 13 and Best Picture winner Braveheart, is unavailable for comment, but ultimately decides that his heart will go on; Alan Menken wins the first Comedy or Musical Score Oscar, as well as Best Song, for Pocahonatas (1996)
March 25 - Tan Dun wins his first score Oscar, for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001)
March 26 - Leigh Harline born (1907)
March 26 - Alan Silvestri born (1950)
March 26 - Louis Silvers died (1954)
March 26 - Malcolm Arnold wins his only Oscar, for The Bridge on the River Kwai score (1958)
March 26 - The Fall of the Roman Empire opens in New York (1964)
March 26 - Noel Coward died (1973)
March 26 - John Williams begins recording his score for SpaceCamp (1986)
March 26 - Alan Menken wins Oscars for The Little Mermaid score and its song "Under the Sea" (1990)
March 26 - John Corigliano wins his first Oscar, for The Red Violin score (2000)
March 26 - Fred Karlin died (2004)
March 27 - Ferde Grofe born (1892)
March 27 - Tony Banks born (1950)
March 27 - Victor Young wins posthumous Best Score Oscar for Around the World in 80 Days (1957)
March 27 - Charlie Chaplin et al win score Oscar for Limelight (1973)
March 27 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Winter Kill (1974)
March 27 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
March 27 - Hans Zimmer wins his first Oscar, for The Lion King score (1995)
March 27 - Dudley Moore died (2002)
March 27 - Recording sessions begin for Nathan Barr's score to Hostel Part II (2007)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

THE ART OF THE STEAL - Grayson Matthews

"[Writer-director Jonathan] Sobol doesn’t go full Guy Ritchie, but early on there are nicknames and textual overlays that introduce Nicky as 'the Idea Man,' Paddy as 'the Rolodex,' and so on. Once the movie hits its stride, the split screens subside a bit, but 'The Art of the Steal' exercises a light stylishness throughout, never betraying its essential moviedom. Cinematographer Adam Swica and production designer Matthew Davies embrace ironic splashes of color in monochromatic settings, and make nice contrast of open and contained spaces. Meanwhile, it’s also clear that composer Grayson Matthews studied the 'Ocean’s Eleven' score.

Brent Simon, Paste Magazine

GRAND PIANO - Victor Reyes

"As loathe as I am to describe the music in the film as 'another character,' the pieces selected by the filmmaker are absolutely essential, providing a (no pun intended) meticulously-orchestrated through line that frames and enhances each new development in the story even as it serves as a ubiquitous reminder of Selznick’s past failures. That it occasionally allows him to depart the stage mid-performance constitutes great planning on Mira’s part, but the fact that it provides a parallel line for Selznick’s emotional state as he embarks on this unexpected roller coaster is truly masterful. There are few modern examples of music being truly integrated into storytelling, certainly as well as this film does, and even without an appreciation for classical composition, there’s much to admire about its use and effectiveness."

Todd Gilchrist, The Playlist

"[Director Eugenio] Mira may be chasing after Hitchcock's ghost, but he does so in the key of the master auteur's acolytes. In a delicious graphic match between the slicing of a woman's throat and the bow stroke of a cello, and in one use of split screen that rather flimsily contrasts performance and murder, De Palma's influence is especially felt (the opening tour of a piano's innards is even set to music evocative of Ennio Morricone's 'Untouchables' score)."

Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

"Mira isn't content to have Tom simply sit on his bench and suffer, however. Instead, there are breaks between movements, allowing him to race backstage to his dressing room or down the stairs to the bowels of the hall. A suspenseful intermission occurs right before he is forced to fulfill a request by the fiend in his ear to perform, yes, the unplayable piece. It's a pleasant and effective surprise that the original composition heard on the soundtrack (written by Spain's Victor Reyes) actually fits that imposing description."

Susan Wloszczyna , RogerEbert.com

"The movie belongs to the race-against-time formula that produced 'Phone Booth' and 'Speed.' It also has a distant kinship with 'The Man Who Knew Too Much.' The supposed masterwork Tom plays is the kind of fake classical music (composed by Victor Reyes) that movies often substitute for the real thing. It’s all flourishes and no substance."

Stephen Holden, New York Times

"The story embraces elements of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much,' particularly in the way Mira -- who has composed movie music himself -- uses the fractured score as a kind of murder weapon, all treacherous shards of sound. (It's by Spanish composer Victor Reyes, and parts of it actually do sound unplayable.)

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice

"Tech credits on the mostly Spanish-shot production are uniformly pro. Production designer Javier Alvarino’s velvet-draped, modernist concert-hall interior sets just the right lurid tone for the hijinks it houses, while Victor Reyes’ score -- incorporating originals and furious arrangements of existing pieces by Beethoven and others -- is, needless to say, a relentless asset."

"When Danny Elfman's sprightly-bombastic score swells and Mr. Peabody and Sherman zoom through snaky time-space wormholes a la 'Star Trek' or 'Contact,' or race out of a collapsing tomb, or body surf through a network of sewer tunnels just ahead of raging flood waters or flame-clouds, it's as if rather slight source material had been injected with a hyper-dose of steroids that made it balloon grotesquely, creating bulges where bulges shouldn't be."

Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

"Danny Elfman’s score, like much else here, is zippy in the moment but not especially distinctive."

Guy Lodge, Variety

THE SINGLE MOMS CLUB - Christopher Young

“As usual, the direction is amateurish, using the constantly blaring, syrupy musical score to compensate for the flat television-style visuals and editing. Even the typical flubs on display during the end credit outtakes fail to provide amusement.”

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

VERONICA MARS - Josh Kramon

"There's something semi-watchable about seeing these semi-attractive people say semi-amusing, self-aware things, such as TV was in that post-Buffy, post-Dawson moment before the paunchy antiheroes muscled in, but anyone preferring novelty to nostalgia may be let down by a film shot, scored and scaled like a feature-length special: a James Franco cameo does not a real movie make."